That would be Brad "Tiki Shark" Parker fer me... for a long time my "Tiki" friend, until the inevitable happened...

Then at Bali Hai in '07 (still pre-tiki fer us), we came out to support Brad for a Tiki Mag show... I talked to Kinny, Tiki Racer, Sam Gambino, Tiki Ray, Thor, and Derik Yaniger... all tiki greats! (and I'm sure none of them remember us from that event...)

The first tiki central organized event I attended was in May 2001, when Tiki Central was still a Yahoo Club. The southern california crawl was organized by Suicide Sam in Long Beach. The places were not exactly tiki, but did include the now closed Lava Lounge. It was mostly about the bands. they weren't exactly tiki, either, but it was the first crawl. I didn't know anybody. But, I did meet some tiki centralites. Fred "Suicide Sam", who organized the event was one of them. Tiki Farm has a table there and I did buy some mugs. So the first tiki central person I may may have been Holden. If it wasn't holden, it was Apple Venus, who had come down from Portland. Neither AppleVenus or Fred come around here anymore.

Ken Ruzic at last year's Tiki Highway, which was my first tiki event to ever attend. His art was a complete departure from anything I had seen before, except for stained glass windows. He was vending and we got into a government conspiracy discussion.
_________________-Lori

I think my first meeting was with the group that came to the VampTiki #1 party. Such wonderful Ohana in Sacramento and a couple of out of towners too. Good pictures on the last pages. Still hooking up with these friends when I can.

Crazy Al, at a Tiki Tones(one of the 2 surf/tiki bands SHAG was in) show at the surf museum in Huntington Beach, Ca. this was oh 1997 or so,
and Crazy Al was selling tiki pendants that he had made of each band member.

Turns out I was the 1st person to buy one, and 6 or 7 years before I got on TC.